


all happiness promised

by catterhey



Category: Rome
Genre: M/M, Post-Series, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 09:36:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2846351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catterhey/pseuds/catterhey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pullo can't lose him again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all happiness promised

**Author's Note:**

  * For [movies_michelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/movies_michelle/gifts).



Against all expectations, Vorenus lived. 

Not three nights after Octavian’s Triumph, Vorenus’ fever broke and the smell of death dissipated from the house.

“The gods be praised,” said Lyde, as she bustled around the kitchen table, picking up bowls and cups and setting them back down almost instantly, before slumping into the chair and pressing her hands to her eyes.

“Lyde?”

“You’ll have to go to the temple for a sacrifice,” she said, and her voice shook. “To thank the gods for his life.”

Though he wasn’t one to disrespect the gods, Pullo thought it more likely that Vorena the Elder’s forgiveness had provided her father the strength for his recovery. She was with him still, tending him. Besides, he couldn’t think of a sacrifice worth enough to equal Vorenus’ life. Definitely not his own, though he would have gladly given it.

“I’ll go in the morning,” he said, and his own voice came out rough.

Pullo stood and made his way to the door. He needed ale.

He stumbled back in the early hours of the morning, pissed beyond belief, and teetered up the stairs into Vorenus’ room. Vorenus was sleeping on his back, his face pinched slightly, as if he dreamt of pain.

“Vorenus,” Pullo whispered. “Vorenus!” He crouched by the bed, and gripped the hand that dangled off the mattress.

“Pullo?”

The angry mutter filled him with an uncontainable joy.

“Yes, brother.”

“What in the gods’ name are you doing?”

Pullo muffled a guffaw in his hand.

“You’re drunk.” Vorenus let out an exasperated sigh and tried to drag his hand out of Pullo’s grasp, but only succeeded in making Pullo stumble closer to the bed.

After a moment, Pullo said, “You’re well.” It wasn’t a question.

“So I am.”

Pullo rested his forehead on Vorenus’ hand, still joined in his, and grinned in the darkness. Vorenus cleared his throat. And Pullo promptly began to snore.

He woke with a crick in his neck and the sun glaring in his face. Pullo gently disentangled his hand from Vorenus’ and pulled himself to his feet. Vorenus slept, though the lines on his face were no longer etched as deep, and his chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. Unlike the journey home from Egypt, where every breath might have been his last. Pullo shuddered to even remember it.

Pullo began to make discrete inquiries that morning. He was weary and wanted to retire to the country. The soldiering life had reached its toll, he was old. He was looking to buy some property, perhaps a patch of land outside Rome. A villa, a small farm, nothing too ostentatious.

“You seem unusually pensive.” Vorenus smirked, eyes half-open, as Pullo sat by his bedside.

“Just thinking about a bit of farming land I’ve found outside Ostia. Old Felix from the Thirteenth - You remember him? He retired before you did - his cousin is looking to sell it.”

Vorenus’ eyes widened. “You? On a farm?”

“What of it? An old dog like me wants to spend his last years in the country. It’s a perfectly respectable thing.”

“ _Respectable_ , yes.” Vorenus frowned. “Something I’ve never known you to be.”

Pullo chuckled. “You wound me, brother. I’ve turned into a model citizen while you were away.”

Vorenus grunted. “Well, when do you plan to leave?”

“We leave as soon as you are able to walk, brother.”

A pause, and the corner of Vorenus’ lips twitched. “Is that so.”

“I don't know a damn thing about farming." 

"Someone needs to keep you in line."

Pullo reached for Vorenus' arm and Vorenus clasped his.

"Yes." Pullo grinned. "About that..."


End file.
